A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Politics is the art of the possible.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.